Tribes tend to heal the steem system that has been poisoned to its core.

Let's take how difficult it is to even have a successful blog on Steem now: even if you manage to have 100 STU (which is among the best I've seen recently) you're only in for what... 10 cents. Nice, but you won't be feeding yourself with that. Tribes have tried to get away from the control that's been pressuring Steem's price so far, and in some ways, encourage bloggers there.

Then there are the downvote whales. By creating their own tribes, many have thought of it as a way to get away from the whales that downvote you just because you dared to say something against their own ideas. It's not a complete censure (posts are still there) but it's a moral attack & even a personal attack in many ways, that depress the newcomers who arrive in steem.

So I'd say that we're not dispersing, but in many cases, dodging problems. It's a good thing that people react & regroups... however, I feel like it's also dangerous because it kind of means we have somewhat abandoned making the steem blockchain a friendlier and fairer place.